Mini robots could be cleaning your body soon

The future is upon us. And by the future, we mean the time "The Magic School Bus" kids go inside Ralphie's body.

Scientists are creating miniature robots that literally clean out your body's pipes. Israeli company Microbot is developing these robots, which can be controlled either inside the body or from afar by electromagnetic fields (apparently, Israelis have a thing for science fiction-style life-saving robots). The company was founded by Israeli entrepreneur Harel Gadot, who worked for Johnson & Johnson, before launching Microbot.

https://vimeo.com/132187666

The robots are so small that they can "navigate and crawl in different spaces within the human body, including blood vessels, the digestive tract and the respiratory system," reads Microbot's website. "[Their] unique structure [give them] the ability to move in tight spaces and curved passages as well as the ability to remain within the human body for prolonged time."

Some robots even come with "balloons" that can inflate and create a space to pass surgical tools like catheterization wires.

These robots can be used to avoid much more invasive surgeries, cleaning pipes in places like the urethra or even the brain. So in a way, robots are literally about to start controlling our brains.

"The miniature robot functions in the same way as a robot that cleans swimming pools or homes," wrote one business publication about the company in what's got to be an oversimplification.

https://youtu.be/1Jph8XSTLqo?t=14m21s

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Ilana Strauss
writes about social sciences and the environment because she is a person on a planet.